B is for Beets

B is for beets. A jar of pickled beets, either home-canned or Bick’s, is a staple in a Newfoundlander’s fridge. They make an excellent accompaniment to a nice thick slab of Klik or Kam (Canadian Spam) at Sunday supper. Beets are also a necessity in the preparation of salad for a Newfie wedding cold plate. The plate includes three kinds of salad. Actually, three scoops of salad. All are potato based with mayonnaise but one is ‘plain’ white with tinned mixed vegetables, one is brilliant yellow – made with the juice of commercial mustard pickles, and the one is bright purply-pink and is made with chopped pickled beets. The three scoops sit in a row on a plate next to a three inch square of not quite green translucent iceberg lettuce topped with a single slice of pale, store-ripened tomato next to rolled up thin slices of ham and roast beef. A good cold plate has real roast turkey, not the commercial slices, and a scoop of savoury stuffing. A gherkin or two sets off the plate. The lettuce and the tomato usually returns to the kitchen uneaten while there is no evidence of the salads left on the plate, having been mopped up with the last bit of sliced ham or white bread roll.

Beet hummus

I haven’t had any of those things in years but still eat my share of beets. I love their earthy flavour and their rich purple colour. I have had roasted beets, beet soup, beets fried with mustard seeds and turmeric, beet chips, and beet mousse. Recently we discovered a recipe for beet hummus:

1/2 pound of well cooked beets, chopped

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

2 cloves garlic

3 Tblsp olive oil

2 Tblsp grated horseradish (I used creamed, prepared)

1 Tblsp lemon juice

Salt and pepper to taste

Blend all ingredients to a coarse puree in a food processor.

Beet hummus with sour cream as a side.

One slightly used blueberry.

B is for berries. Strawberries and blueberries. Big fat high-bushed blueberries. They are just the thing for blueberry/strawberry scones to have with a cup of tea on a Sunday morning. I like them with a thin glaze made of icing sugar and fresh squeezed lemon juice. I should caution you that if you make these, don’t feed them to your guests because they might never go home.

Mmmmm - scones.

Mmmm - scones with butter.

"Could I 'ave some more please....just a 'alf one this time...oh me 'ips!!"

B is for blackcurrants. I grow them because they are on the short-list of things which deer do not eat. For the past few years I haven’t bothered to pick them but left them to drop into the grass and rot. Shameful I know but it keeps the ants happy. This year my daughter picked them all and suggested that we make Ribena.

Take 500 grams of blackcurrants. Add 250 grams of sugar and 250 ml. of water. Heat over low heat until the sugar melts. Bring to a simmer and cook for five minutes.

Add the juice and skin of one lemon and simmer five more minutes. Let cool and press through a sieve or a jelly bag.

Not a purple heart. Currant pulp in the bag.

A real purple heart.

Pour juice into sterilized bottles and refrigerate.

Sarah's Ribena (blackcurrant cordial)

Dilute with soda water

and serve with scones.

B is for brunch.

Today’s blog has been brought to you by the colour PURPLE and the letter B.

Fine Russian porcelain thanks to Nancy Benson (how did she know I’ve lusted after that teapot for years?)

What I’m Reading Now

The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje ♥♥♥♥
Half Broken Things by Morag Joss ♥♥♥½
Irreplaceable by Stephen Lovely ♥♥
The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter ♥♥♥½
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner ♥♥♥♥♥
The Devil You Know by Wayne Johnson ♥♥♥
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent ♥♥♥♥
Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes ♥♥♥♥½
A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz ♥♥♥♥
Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim ♥♥♥½
No. 13 Washington Square by Leroy Scott ♥♥½
Christopher Carson by John SC Abbott♥♥♥♥
Lucien Freud, Eyes Wide Open by Phoebe Hoban ♥♥½
The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman ♥♥♥♥
An American Childhood by Annie Dillard ♥♥♥♥
Brunelleschi's Dome by Ross King ♥♥♥♥
Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver ♥♥♥
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (audio) ♥♥♥♥
Into the Deep Unknown - Land of the Tent Dwellers by Mike Parker♥♥♥ (great [pictures)
The Death of Kings by Bernard Cornwell (audio)♥♥♥1/2
Back Fire by Catherine Coulter (audio book)♥♥♥
In the Mersey Woods published by the paper company
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood (audio book)♥♥♥♥
The Kite Runner (audio book)♥♥♥♥♥
Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver ♥♥♥1/2
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver ♥♥♥1/2
The Round House by Louise Erdrich ♥♥♥♥
Empire Falls by Richard Russo ♥♥♥
Dear Everbody by Anne Budgell ♥♥♥♥
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera ♥♥
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner ♥♥♥♥♥
Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante
Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi ♥♥♥♥♥